MSI Z97 U3 PLUS Quick start guide

Software & Application

User Guide

G52-XXXX1HG

Preface

ii

Preface

Copyright Notice

The material in this document is the intellectual property of MICRO-STAR

INTERNATIONAL. We take every care in the preparation of this document, but no

guarantee is given as to the correctness of its contents. Our products are under

continual improvement and we reserve the right to make changes without notice.

Trademarks

All trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

￭ MSI

®

is registered trademark of Micro-Star Int’l Co.,Ltd.

￭ NVIDIA

®

is registered trademark of NVIDIA Corporation.

￭ ATI

®

is registered trademark of ATI Technologies Inc.

￭ AMD

®

is registered trademarks of AMD Corporation.

￭ Intel

®

is registered trademarks of Intel Corporation.

￭ Windows

®

is registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

￭ AMI

®

is registered trademark of American Megatrends Inc.

￭ Award

®

is a registered trademark of Phoenix Technologies Ltd.

￭ Sound Blaster

®

is registered trademark of Creative Technology Ltd.

￭ Realtek

®

is registered trademark of Realtek Semiconductor Corporation.

￭ JMicron

®

is registered trademark of JMicron Technology Corporation.

￭ iPad

®

, iPhone

®

and iPod

®

are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.

￭ Qualcomm Atheros and Killer are trademarks of Qualcomm Atheros Inc.

Revision History

Revision Revision History Date

V3.0 First release 2014/03

Technical Support

If a problem arises with your system and no solution can be obtained from the user’s

manual, please contact your place of purchase or local distributor. Alternatively,

please try the following help resources for further guidance.

Visit the MSI website for technical guide, BIOS

updates, driver updates, and other information:

http://www.msi.com/service/download/

Contact our technical sta at:

http://register.msi.com/

Preface

iii

Preface

About this guide

This Software Application Guide describes how to use the software applications

that come with the MSI’s motherboards. Each chapter describes one of the software

applications. It can help you to operate easily when you use the advanced software

applications designed by MSI.

Your motherboard may only supports some applications, please refer to the

specication on the motherboard user guide.

◯

Command Center - this chapter describes Command Center overview, how to

monitor your motherboard hardware, read CPU, memory information and use

Command Center to overclock the system.

◯

Sound Blaster Cinema 2 - this chapter describes how to active enhancement

features and select proles on Sound Blaster Cinema 2.

◯

Killer Network Manager - this chapter describes how to test and congure

bandwidth on Killer Network Manager.

◯

Live Update 6 - this chapter describes Live Update 6 overview, and how to

update your system.

◯

Network Genie - this chapter describes system requirement of Network Genie,

how to select network mode and set applications priority.

◯

Super Charger - this chapter guides you with Super-Charge to charge your

iPad, iPhone and iPod.

◯

Smart Utilities - this chapter describes how to use Smart Utilities for enabling

Intel

®

Rapid Start Technology, Intel

®

Smart Response Technology and Intel

®

Smart Connect Technology.

◯

Gaming App - this chapter describes how to switch between OC mode,

Gaming mode and Silent mode in Gaming App.

◯

ECO Center - this chapter describes how to power o components on the

motherboard with ECO Center.

◯

XSplit Gamecaster - this chapter describes how to register an XSplit account,

stream and record your gameplay.

iv

Preface

▍CONTENTS

Command Center ...........................................................................................1

Overview and Operation ......................................................................................... 2

Default Value .................................................................................................... 2

Changing Value ................................................................................................ 2

Prole Buttons .................................................................................................. 3

Resizing Window .............................................................................................. 4

Main Features ......................................................................................................... 5

CPU Frequency ................................................................................................ 5

CPU Fan ........................................................................................................... 5

CPU Voltage ..................................................................................................... 6

DRAM Frequency & DRAM Voltage ................................................................. 6

IGP Frequency & GT Voltage ........................................................................... 6

RAMDisk ........................................................................................................... 7

OC Genie .......................................................................................................... 7

Option Buttons ........................................................................................................ 8

Gadget Mode ........................................................................................................ 12

Setting Gadget ................................................................................................ 12

Sound Blaster Cinema 2...............................................................................13

System Requirement ............................................................................................. 14

Overview and Operation ....................................................................................... 14

Tool Tip ........................................................................................................... 14

SBX Pro Studio Master ON/OFF .................................................................... 15

Users Prole ................................................................................................... 15

Advanced Setting ............................................................................................ 15

Feature Toggle ............................................................................................... 15

Control Slider .................................................................................................. 15

Volume Control/ Mute ..................................................................................... 16

Drop-down Menu (Top Right) ......................................................................... 16

Killer Network Manager ................................................................................17

System Requirement ............................................................................................. 18

Killer Network Manager Operation ........................................................................ 18

Conguring Bandwidth .......................................................................................... 19

Speed Testing ................................................................................................. 19

Manually Changing Bandwidth ....................................................................... 19

Killer Network Manager Control Panel .................................................................. 20

Overview ......................................................................................................... 20

Applications Page ........................................................................................... 21

Network Settings ............................................................................................. 22

System Performance ...................................................................................... 23

Preface

v

Preface

Killer Ethernet ................................................................................................. 24

Live Update 6 ...............................................................................................25

Live Update 6 overview ......................................................................................... 26

Live Update Tab ............................................................................................. 26

History Tab ..................................................................................................... 26

Setting ............................................................................................................. 27

System Information Tab .................................................................................. 27

Updating The System ............................................................................................ 28

Total Installer ......................................................................................................... 30

Network Genie ..............................................................................................31

System Requirement ............................................................................................. 32

Network Genie Operation ...................................................................................... 32

Network Genie Control Panel ................................................................................ 33

Mode Tab ........................................................................................................ 33

Application Tab ............................................................................................... 34

Advanced Tab ................................................................................................. 35

System Info Tab .............................................................................................. 36

About Tab ....................................................................................................... 36

Super Charger .............................................................................................. 37

Enabling Super Charger ........................................................................................ 38

Smart Utilities ...............................................................................................39

System Requirement ............................................................................................. 40

Overview and Operation ....................................................................................... 40

Main Buttons Status ........................................................................................ 40

Intel Rapid Start ............................................................................................. 41

Intel Smart Response ..................................................................................... 41

Intel Smart Connect ....................................................................................... 41

Apply ............................................................................................................... 42

Gaming App..................................................................................................43

System Requirement ............................................................................................. 44

Overview and Operation ....................................................................................... 44

CPU and GPU Clock ...................................................................................... 44

Control Mode Buttons ..................................................................................... 45

Display Mode Button ....................................................................................... 45

ECO Center .................................................................................................. 47

System Requirement ............................................................................................. 48

Overview and Operation ....................................................................................... 48

Power Toggle .................................................................................................. 49

Apply Button ................................................................................................... 49

XSplit Gamecaster........................................................................................51

System Requirement ............................................................................................. 52

Logging ................................................................................................................. 52

Registering an Account ................................................................................... 52

Overview and Operation ....................................................................................... 53

User Information ............................................................................................. 53

Learning stream and record ............................................................................ 53

Changing language ......................................................................................... 54

Tool Tip ........................................................................................................... 54

Inside the XSplit Gamecaster Overlay ............................................................ 54

Accounts Tab ........................................................................................................ 55

Live Streaming Services ................................................................................. 55

Video Sharing Services .................................................................................. 55

Social Network Services ................................................................................. 55

Settings Tab .......................................................................................................... 56

Stream Settings .............................................................................................. 56

Hotkeys Tab .......................................................................................................... 57

Setting and Deleting Hotkeys ......................................................................... 57

Recordings Tab ..................................................................................................... 58

Command Center

Command Center is an user-friendly software and exclusively developed by

MSI, helping users to adjust system settings and monitor status and under

OS. With the help of Command Center, making it possible to achieve easier

and ecient monitoring process and adjustments than that under BIOS. In

addition, the Command Center can be a server for mobile remote control

application.

Command Center

2

Command Center

Overview and Operation

After installing and activating Command Center, you can click on each feature name

(CPU, DRAM, GPU, OC Genie) to switch into particular feature view for necessary

setting controls. You can also click the left or the right arrow icons on the sides of the

Command Center to scroll to the previous or next control panel.

Feature

menu

CPU

temperature

System

Information

Feature

title

Feature

control

panel

Prole

buttons

Option

buttons

Page

indicator

Default Value

When you click the information icon

on the panel, a pop-up message will show,

indicating the allowed range and the default

value.

Changing Value

Each control panel has dierent way to change values. The following describes how to

control.

▶Plus and minus buttons

You can click the plus or minus button to increase or decrease the value.

Important

The pictures in this guide are for reference only and may vary from the product you

purchased. Please refer to the actual screens of your system for detailed information.

Resize

corner

Command Center

3

Command Center

▶Slider

You can drag the slider left or right to decrease or increase the value.

▶Knob

You can rotate the knob clockwise or counter clockwise to increase or decrease the

percentage.

▶Enter value

You can enter a value directly in the text eld.

Prole Buttons

You can use proles buttons to apply changes, reset to default, save and load proles.

▶Default button - Load the default setting values for the current feature.

▶Apply button - After changing values on Feature control panel, you must click the

“Apply” button to apply your changes.

▶Save button - When you click the “Save” button A dialogue window will appear that

allows you to select the location on your computer to save the le. Setting values of

each feature will be stored in the le with individual le extension.

▶Load button - Load the setting values from the le.

Important

Every time you shut down the system, the congured setting will be restored to the

factory default. If you want to use the saved settings, you have to load it every time by

clicking the “Load” and “Apply” buttons.

Command Center

4

Command Center

Resizing Window

You can resize the window to half size mode by dragging the right bottom corner.

Command Center

5

Command Center

Main Features

This section describes the main features (CPU Frequency, CPU Fan, )on the control

panel.

CPU Frequency

CPU Frequency control panel allows you

to change CPU Ratio and Baseclock.

You can see the current frequency of

each CPU core on the top of the panel.

CPU Fan

CPU Fan control panel provides Smart

mode and Manual Mode. You can switch

the control mode by clicking the “Smart

Mode” and “Manual Mode” buttons on

the top of the CPU Fan control panel.

▶Manual Mode - Allows you to manually

control the CPU fan speed by percent-

age.

▶Smart Mode - Smart Mode is a linear

fan speed control feature. The Smart

Mode control panel contains 4 dots al-

lows you to drag and adjust the Smart

Speed slopes. The fan speed will be

changed along these lines with CPU tem-

perature. The white dot will create strip

chart in real time.

▶System Fan Button - You can click the

system fan icon

to open the sys-

tem fan control panel in new window.

▶Fan Tune Button - Also, you can press

the auto tune icon

to automatically

optimize the smart fan setting.

Manual Mode

Smart Mode

Command Center

6

Command Center

CPU Voltage

CPU Voltage control panel allows you to

control the CPU voltage.

DRAM Frequency & DRAM

Voltage

▶DRAM Frequency - Shows the DRAM

clock, ratio and frequency.

▶DRAM Voltage - Allows you to adjust

the DRAM voltage. The risky values are

displayed in red.

IGP Frequency & GT Voltage

▶IGP Frequency - Allows you to adjust

the IGP ratio, and shows the IGP clock,

ratio and frequency.

▶GT Voltage - Allows you to adjust the

GT voltage. The risky values are dis-

played in red.

Command Center

7

Command Center

OC Genie

Please read the introduction on the OC Genie control panel rst. Depends on the CPU

types, the introduction may be dierent.

To enable the OC Genie feature, click the OC GEINE button icon. You can also click

the “How to start?” button to learn how to use the OC GENIE button.

RAMDisk

RAMDisk control panel allows you to

create a virtual RAM drive.

▶Enable button - Enable or disable the

RAMDisk function.

▶Setting - Specify Letter, Name, Size

and Format of the RAM disk.

▶Option - Select data to save/load on

the RAM disk, witch can speed up your

system performance and extend the life

of SSD.

▶Backup - Specify backup and restore

settings to prevent data loss.

▶Accept button - Allows you to accept

settings of the RAMDisk function.

Command Center

8

Command Center

Option Buttons

Option buttons provide advanced setting, additional setting and system information.

▶Advanced

When click the “Advanced” button, The Voltage, Fan and DRAM icons will appear.

You can click the icons to open the control panels in new windows.

Voltage - Allows you to adjust

advanced voltage of CPU and

chipset.

Fan - Allows you to control the

system fans speed.

DRAM - DRAM Timings control

panel shows the current Advanced

DRAM parameters, and allows you

to change the settings by selecting

values from the drop-down menu

on the right hand side.

Command Center

9

Command Center

▶Setting

When click the “Setting” button, The Record, Warning and Mobile Control icons will

appear. You can click the icons to open the control panels in new windows.

Record - Record control panel

allows you to monitor the status

of voltage, fan speed and

temperature in real time.

To lter record charts, select the

check box next to the items.

When click the

Start

button, the chart pane will start

to show the recording chart. If

you want to check the value of

a specic spot on chart, please

move the orange vertical line to

the spot.

History Record - History Record

stores the data and names with

date and time.

To make a history record:

1. Select items that you would

like to record.

2. Click the “Record” button on

the left bottom to record status

from your system.

3. When nished, click the

“Record” button again. The

data will be stored in the drop-

down menu.

To load a record, click the drop-

down menu and select your

desired record from the list.

To delete a record, select the

record that you want to delete, and

click the Trash Can icon.

Start/ Stop Record

Button

Records List

Command Center

10

Command Center

Warning - Warning Control Panel contains elds

of voltage, fan speed and temperature for you to

set the threshold values. When system detects

the status over your settings, a warning message

will pop-up(as shown below).

You can enable/ disable warning items and alert

sound by selecting the check box next to the

items.

Mobile Control - The Mobile Control control panel is only available for the

motherboard with the built-in WiFi module. It allows you to enable/disable the

Command Center Remote Server. Please refer to the instruction on the Mobile

Control control panel.

SoftAP Management

enable button

Command Center Remote

Server ON/OFF

SoftAP Management Setting

To start remote control:

1. Download and install MSI Command Center APP to your mobile device.

2. Enable Command Center Remote Server on the Mobile Control control

panel.

3. Enable SoftAP Management.

4. Enter SSID and Password, and then click the “Apply” button.

5. Activate Wi-Fi on your mobile device and connect to SoftAP with the SSID.

6. Run MSI Command Center APP on your mobile device.

7. Find the IP address on the SoftAP Management Setting area, and enter the

IP address on your MSI Command Center APP to link your system.

8. Press “Refresh” on the MSI Command Center APP to verify that monitoring

and OC functions are working properly.

Command Center

11

Command Center

▶Information

When click the “Information” button, The Motherboard, CPU, Memory and HW Monitor

Control icons will appear. You can click the icons to open the information windows.

Motherboard

CPU

Momery

HW Monitor

Command Center

12

Command Center

Gadget Mode

Command Center provides a gadget mode to monitor the system status. You can

switch to gadget mode by clicking the arrow icon

on the top left (as shown

below).

Setting Gadget

Gadget mode provides a conguration panel,

that allows you to select items.

To select items:

1. Click the Spanner icon on the Gadget, a

conguration panel will slide out.

2. Select the check box next to the items.

3. When nished, click the “Close” button.

Sound Blaster

Cinema 2

Sound Blaster Cinema 2 improves how you experience stereo and multi-

channel soundtracks from a variety of sources, including DVDs, games, CDs,

MP3s and even Blu-Ray.

Powered by the SBX Pro Studio technologies, the Sound Blaster Cinema 2

delivers a much more realistic and immersive experience, conveniently placed

in a central and intuitive console

The SBX Pro Studio suite of technologies features:

■ SBX Surround™

■ SBX Crystalizer™

■ SBX Bass™

■ SBX Smart Volume™

■ SBX Dialog Plus™

Sound Blaster Cinema 2

14

Sound Blaster Cinema 2

Control Slider

System Requirement

You need to have the following system requirements to run Sound Blaster Cinema 2 :

Hardware:

■ MSI motherboard with Sound Blaster Cinema 2

Software specications:

■ Windows 7 32bit/ 64bit

■ Windows 8 32bit/ 64bit

■ Windows 8.1 32bit/ 64bit

■ Realtek HD audio driver

Overview and Operation

After installing and activating Sound Blaster Cinema 2, you can click on each

enhancement feature name (SURROUND, CRYSTALIZER, BASS, DIALOG PLUS or

SMART VOLUME) to switch into particular feature view for necessary setting controls.

User Prole

Feature Title

Feature Toggle

Volume

Control/

Mute

SBX Pro Studio Master

ON/OFF

Tool Tip

When you hover the (mouse) cursor over a button, slider or feature name on the

panel, a tooltip will show, describing the particular function of that item.

Advanced

Setting

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MSI Z97 U3 PLUS Quick start guide

MSI Z97 U3 PLUS Quick start guide

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